- REFORMS NEEDED IN THE VOTING PROCESS
- The Supreme Court has decided to hear petitions seeking 100 percent cross verification of the voter verifiable paper audit trail slips (VVPAT) with the vote count as per the electronic voting machines.
- The electronic voting machine was introduced on a trial basis in 1982 in the assembly constituency of Paravur in Kerala.
- Into 2004 general elections to the Lok Sabha electronic voting machines were used in all 543 constituencies.
- Despite its advantages there have been doubts raised about the functioning of electronic voting machines by various political parties and civil society activists from time to time. The most repeated allegation is that electronic voting machine are susceptible to hacking as it is an electronic device.
- However, the Election Commission of India has time to time again clarified that it is a stand alone device like a calculator with no connectivity to any external device and hence free from any kind of external hack.
- An EVM being used by ECI can record a maximum of 2,000 votes. They do not require electricity. They run on an ordinary battery. The microchip used in EVMs is a one-time programmable/masked chip, which can neither be read nor overwritten. Furthermore, the EVMs are stand-alone machines and there is no operating system used in these machines
2. WHY HAS INDIA ALLOWED FIIS TO INVEST IN ITS GREEN BONDS?
- The Reserve Bank of India Green lighted investment in the country’s sovereign green bonds by foreign institutional investors.
- Sovereign green bonds are kind of government debt that specifically funds projects attempting to accelerate India’s transition to a low carbon economy.
- Allowing foreign institutional investors to invest in India’s green projects widens the pool of capital available to fund the country’s ambitious 2017 net zero goals, ensuring 50% of India’s energy comes from non-fossil fuel based sources and to reduce the carbon intensity of the nation’s economy by 45%.
- Sovereign green bonds yield lower interest than conventional government securities and the amount foregone by a bank by investing in them is called a greenium.
- In Union Budget 2022-23, the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced that sovereign green bonds will be issued for mobilising resources for ‘green projects’. The World Bank is a major issuer of green bonds and issued $14.4 billion of green bonds between 2008 and 2020
3. IMPORTED INFLATION
- Imported inflation refers to the rise in the prices of goods and services in a country that is caused by an increase in the price or the cost of imports into that country.
- It is believed that a rise in input costs pushes producers to raise the price they charge from their local customers thus boosting inflation.
- A depreciation in the value of a country’s currency is generally seen as the most important reason behind imported inflation in an economy.
- This is because when a country’s currency depreciates people in the country will have to shell out more of their local currency to purchase the necessary foreign currency required to buy any foreign goods or services.
- A devaluation occurs when a country’s central bank makes a conscious decision to lower its exchange rate in a fixed or semi-fixed exchange rate. A depreciation is when there is a fall in the value of a currency in a floating exchange rate.
4. NEW PANEL TO ADDRESS ISSUES OF LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY
- The Ministry of law and Justice notified a six member committee to address issues related to the Queer Community.
- The committee will be headed by the Cabinet Secretary and will suggest measures to ensure that the Queer community does not encounter any discrimination in accessing goods and services or face threat of violence among others.
- The Supreme Court had last year directed last year that such a panel be set up to address the challenges faced by the community in accordance with the statement made by the centre in the court.
- SC holds that queer persons have an equal right and freedom to enter into a “union”. All five judges on the Bench, agreed that there is no fundamental right to marry under the Constitution.
5. IMF FORECASTS INDIA’S ECONOMY TO GROW 6.8 PERCENT THIS FISCAL YEAR
- The International Monetary Fund raised its growth projection for India’s GDP in the current fiscal year to 6.8% and a forecast of 6.5% expansion next year.
- The latest forecast is a 0.3 percentage point upward revision from January’s projection.
- This has been set by the IMF in its World Economic Outlook report.
- It said that the global economy had remained remarkably resilient with steady growth and inflation returning to target and had defied expectations of stagflation and global recession in the wake of the post pandemic supply disruptions.
- World Economic Outlook is a survey by the IMF that is usually published twice a year in the months of April and October. It analyzes and predicts global economic developments during the near and medium term
ONE LINER
- M,Aranganathan Memorial Awards 2024 for literacy Tamil Scholars Gnanasundaram and Blasubramaniam
- Dustlik joint military exercise of India and Uzbekistan.
